Father’s Day surprise for Andy Murray as his kids show up for Nottingham win

Andy Murray was given the best Father’s Day present after being surprised by his children following his title win at the Rothesay Nottingham Open.

Murray continued his excellent preparation for Wimbledon with a second successive title as he beat Frenchman Arthur Cazaux 6-4 6-4 in the Challenger Tour event to make it 10 wins in a row after also triumphing at Surbiton last week.

The former world number one was hoping to make a quick dash down the M1 to be home in time to see his four children before they went to bed, but was given a nice surprise as his wife Kim and Sophia, Edie, Teddy and Lola made their presence known during the trophy presentation.

Despite their effort to travel to Nottingham to see their dad win a 10th career grass court title, Murray revealed they were actually more interested in going to McDonald’s.

“To be honest, after I had the kids I was motivated to keep playing so they could watch me when I was older, but they are not really that interested,” Murray said.

“I thought they might be but they’re not. It is really nice for them to come, I have loved having them come and watch today, but I realise for them, they are more interested in other things.

“But it was still nice because they haven’t been to Wimbledon, they came to Queen’s when I played doubles there, but they haven’t been around it at all. They are more interested in when we are going to McDonalds after the match.

“I didn’t know they were coming. I was obviously hoping with the early start I would get down the road this evening, I had no idea they were coming.

“They showed up last week, we live quite close to Surbiton, and after I won the first set they decided to come and try and see the end. As they arrived it started raining, they hung around for a couple of hours but then it started getting close to bedtime so they went and as they got home I got back on court.

“They obviously decided to make the effort to come down here and thankfully I managed to win.”

A 10th win in a row renewed hope that Murray will be able to have a good run at Wimbledon, which starts in a fortnight.

This is his best sequence of results since 2017, when he still topped the world rankings and was not playing with a metal hip.

And he will now head to his favourite stomping ground at Queen’s, where a run to the quarter-finals could see him improve his ranking enough to be seeded at SW19.

He made it through the week at Nottingham without dropping a set, but it was a second-tier Challenger event so he will receive a truer test of where his game is at next week, with world number one Carlos Alcaraz and number two Holger Rune among others in the draw.

However, on the evidence of his movement, serving and match play this week, Murray looks a good bet to enjoy his best run at Wimbledon since he hobbled out of the 2017 quarter-finals with the hip injury that derailed his career.

Winning the Nottingham Open may not have the prestige of his previous successes, but they are still special to Murray.

“I love winning tournaments. Since all of the injury issues that has been a bit tougher for me,” he said. “All of these trophies I have won since the operation, they mean a lot to me.

“I’m not saying it’s the same as winning at Wimbledon, but I know how hard it is what I’m doing right now, I know how hard I’m working to getting back to trying to win tournaments and they still mean a lot to me.”